


Keprinted from Kansas Historical Collections, Vol. XI. 



STATEMENT OF THEODORE WEICHSELBAUM, 

OF OGDEN, RILEY COUNTY, 

JULY 17, 1908. 

I WAS born in Furth, near Nuremberg, Bavaria, June 10, 1834. My 
father was Dr. Merits Weichselbaum. He practiced medicine in Furth 
for sixty-six years. He was born in 1802, and died there in 1895. My 
mether was Betty Kohn. I do not remember her father's name. She Hved 
in Wiirzburg, Bavaria, a university town. She died in 1869. 

I landed in New York city the 1st of June, 1856, and worked for a whole- 
sale jewelry store in that city belonging to Louis Lewinger, corner of 
Nassau street and Maiden Lane, in which I had some interest. I sold my 
interest in this business soon, as I wanted to learn to speak the English 
language, and my employer used German only. I went peddling for a short 
time in Connecticut, and took opportunities to talk whether I made sales or 
not. I had been an English student in Bavaria, but it needs experience to 
talk well. Springer & Fries, wholesale clothing manufacturers of Cincin- 
nati, heard that I was in this country, and having known me in Bavaria, 
sent for me. They furnished me with goods and paid my expenses to 
go out to Leavenworth, all the way from New York city. At St. Louis 
I took the steamboat Morning Star, and landed in Leavenworth in March, 
1857. My goods were landed at Kansas City, Mo., and I opened a general 
store there on Main street, the third house from the levee on the east side. 
I visited the locality recently, but could not recognize a building. I stayed 
there until the 18th of December of that year. My business did not suit 
me, so I loaded up my goods in three wagons and took them to Ogden. I 
followed the Santa Fe trail with my three wagons until I reached the sta- 
tion at 110. From there I took the Mormon trail and traveled three full 
days, and never saw a person or a house. On the morning of the fourth 
day I saw a house within three rods of where we had camped the night be- 
fore. I went to the house to find out where I was, and found I was on the 
head of Humboldt creek, in Geary county. From there I had to drive to 
Fort Riley, and crossed the Kansas river at Whisky Point, just opposite 
the fort. There was quite a little town there then-saloons, stores, etc. 
The soldiers bought whisky there. I then drove five miles northeast to 
Ogden, and put my goods into a little log store building, and opened them 
up for sale. The county seat was then at Ogden, and the land office. Davis 
county was not yet organized, but was under the jurisdiction of Riley 
county. 1 I slept on my count er. Not long afterward I moved my goods 

Note l.-At the Home-coming Week in Junction City in August, 1909, George W. Martin 
read a paper, frorn which we extract the following statement, showing the manipulation of 
county lines, the rise of Junction City and Manhattan, and the fall of Ogden. 

"Davis county was established by the proslavery legislature of 1855. At that time there 
were no surveys. The legislature began with the county boundaries at the mouth of the Kansas 
river, south along the western line of Missouri twenty-four miles, thence west twenty-four 
Lnes thence north to the channel of the Kansas river, thence down said "J^/ ^^ P'f '^^ °/,b|f '"' 
ning The next county westward started at the southwest corner of the first county, and so on 
westward Davis countyTtlrting at the southwest corner of Richardson (now Wabaunsee) and 
Tunnrg westlhirty mifes thenfe north to the Smoky Hill, and down the river to the northwest 
corner of Richardson. This at that time was about St. George and the county was all south of 
the river. In 1857 the surveys had extended so that the legislature "s^d definite lines. The leg- 
islature of 1859 moved the south line of Davis county nine miles n°rth- In I860 the east line of 
the county was pushed four miles westward to accommodate Richardson. The legislature of 






Ca 



6"' 



2 Kansas State Historical Society. 

into a log cabin, with a loft, in which I slept. In 1859 I put up my first 
stone building, the one in which the post office is now kept. 

I was postmaster at Ogden under Buchanan's administration. My com- 
mission is dated October 26, 1859. It was signed by the President and in- 
dorsed by Joseph Holt, postmaster-general, who died a short time ago. I 
also had the post office under Lincoln and until Grant's administration, 
when the Republican party put me out. I was postmaster twice under 
Cleveland's administration. 2 

I early became financially interested in the sutler stores at Forts Lamed, 
Dodge, Harker, Wallace and Camp Supply. I sold out my interest in aM of 
them in May, 1869, to Charles F. Tracy, of St. Louis, who had received the 
appointment as sutler at Dodge and Larned. During the '60's I filled sev- 
eral government contracts at these posts putting up hay and wood. The 
last wood contract I filled in 1869—1200 cords at $24.42 a cord-for Fort 
Dodge. I got the wood twenty-five miles south of Fort Dodge on Bluff 
creek, and hauled it with my own teams. 

Jesse Crane got the original appointment for the sutler's store at Fort 
Larned, in 1859, and asked me to help him. He had clerked for Bob Wilson, the 
original post sutler at Fort Riley, and secured his appointment in that way. 
So we started in partnership and continued four years. Our first goods 
were taken to Camp Alert, right across the timbered ravine, northeast of 
where they were building Fort Larned. We were there perhaps six or 
eight months before the completion of the fort. Maj. Henry W. Wessels 

I860 took some territory off Dickinson and added it to Davis, and also extended Davis north of 
the Smoky Hill. The territorial legislature of 1861 changed several sections in township 10 south 
of the river, opposite Manhattan, to Riley county. In 1864 there was a change made of a few^ 
sections in the line between Davis and Dickinson. The west line of Riley was five or six miles 
west of Junction City, so that this region north of the river was. prior to 1860, in Riley county. 
In 1873 the territory at the mouth of McDowell was given to Riley, and the Milford section on 
the Republican given to Davis. To complete the story of the manipulation of these county lines, 
I must say that the legislature of 1871 took from Wabaunsee a strip of six miles wide and twelve 
or fourteen miles south from the river and gave it to Riley county. The legislature of 1873 re- 
stored six miles of this territory to Wabaunsee. 

" Now, why and how happened all this changing of boundary lines? I venture there are not 
ten people in the county familiar with this business. Local history was always a fad with me, and 
I have observed, both before and since occupying my present position, that quite frequently the 
best part of history is never told. County lines were originally laid out on a barren and unde- 
veloped region. Lines of travel and development made frequent changes necessary. The Smoky 
Hill and Kansas rivers made a very unsatisfactory boundary line. The task of reconstruction 
began in this neighborhood. I suppose some would call it selfishness, but present conditions 
amply justify the foresightedness of those who first made settlements in the counties of Davis 
and Riley. Historical writers are getting very particular in this day about documents, but we 
all know that common gossip, general understanding and rumor sometimes involve very good his- 
tory. In talking about these changes and how they happened, I must give you some history with- 
out documents. 

"Davis and Riley were very reasonably shaped counties. Ogden was the county seat of 
Riley, and it also had the United States land office, and it was reasonably situated. Pawnee was 
destroyed, leaving Ogden the only town. Kansas Falls was an attempt at a town, but it could 
not succeed. Manhattan and Junction City combined to crucify Ogden. I have no documents 
to show this, but that is the way it looks to me. The former took the county seat of Riley and 
the latter took the land office. But Junction City was without a county, and hence the gradual 
reconstruction into its present shape of Davis or Geary county. Riley City, located about where 
the Country Club now is, was an ambitious point, and had also to be wiped out. 

"And here we come to a point where we have some documents. The legislature of 1857 
directed that the people of Riley hold an election for county seat on the first Monday of October, 
1857. The same date was fixed for a county-seat vote in Davis, but this latter did not happen 
until June 25, 1860, at which time Davis was extended north of the river. But Riley voted on the 
5th of October, 1857. In placing in order certain archives of our library we came across a bunch 
of testimony a1}out that election, causing grave suspicion of crookedness, and upon which Man- 
hattan made a contest before the legislature of 1858. Andrew J. Mead was a member of the 
council and Abraham Barry a member of the house. The latter was chairman of the special 
committee to investigate, and he reported that Ogden received 193 votes and Manhattan 156; 
majority for Ogden, 37. They found 59 illegal votes at Ogden for Ogden, which were thrown out, 
leaving a majority of 22 for Manhattan. Governor Denver signed a bill January 30, 1858, making 
Manhattan the county seat. 

" In the papers on file with the Historical Society it is charged that Ogden was never notified 

Note 2.— Theodore Weichselbaum was the Democratic candidate for state treasurer in 1880, 
receiving 59,750 votes. 

a:». of D« 



statement of Theodore Weichselbaum. 3 

and Capt. Julius Hayden (of company H, Second infantry) commanded the 
soldiers at Fort Larned then, companies G and H, Second infantry, sent 
there to establish the fort. Major Wessels was a very fine old man. I 
hauled out the baggage and provisions for these men. 

F. W. Schaurte was orderly sergeant when I went down to Fort Larned 
with Major Wessels. Schaurte had his wife and one child with him there. 
She was an Irish woman while he was a German. I used to stop with them 
when at Fort Larned. He was stationed there over a year. He was colonel 
of a Cherokee regiment during the Civil War. One of the captains had his 
family there too. I think it was Capt. Julius Hayden; just his wife. He 
remained there until the breaking out of the war. 

Jesse Crane got the appointment at Fort Dodge when the fort was first 

of the investigation by this legislative committee— they heard of it through the newspapers, and 
when they reached the seat of government the bill in favor of Manhattan had passed both houses 
of the legislature. 

"The folks then certainly had some nerve. The territorial legislature of 1857 overlooked 
Riley in making legislative apportionment. Among the papers we have is a petition asking the 
governor of the territory to call a special session of the legislature solely to give Riley county 
a member. They say that 'the growing interests of our county demand some representative, 
and we know of but one way to correct this blunder.' There are twenty- three signers, includ- 
ing such well-known names as Ben H. Keyser. P. Z. Taylor, Robert Henderson, William Cuddy, 
Geo. W. Kingsbury, John Sanderson, William Sanderson, George Montague and Henry Mitchell. 

"The United States land office was opened at Ogden in October, 1857. Ashland was made 
the county seat of Davis county in 1859, but I cannot find any authority for it. On the 9th of 
February, 1859, Junction City was incorporated. In September, 1859. the United States land 
office was moved to Junction City. In the grand march of events, or perhaps of political ma- 
nipulation, the county having moved north of the river to include this beautiful spot, a county- 
.seat election happened on the 25th of June, 1860. Of course it was conducted better than the 
Manhattan job. and did not need the intercession of the legislature. There were 287 votes for 
Junction City, 129 for Union, 3 for Ashland, and 3 for Riley City. Junction City polled 224 votes. 
Thirty days later there were 112 votes polled in the county, of which number Junction City 
furnished 45. 

"Now the two towns of Junction City and Manhattan have each a county seat. Ogden led 
off with a ' Kansas Female Collegiate Institute,' in February, 1857, and Manhattan followed with 
the ' Bluemont Central College,' now the Kansas State Agricultural College, in February, 1858. 
Our proslavery forefathers were slow in this respect. 

"Junction was now comparatively at ease concerning county lines. But the extreme length 
of Riley county north, extending westward across the hills to the Republican, gave Manhattan 
constant distress. The town needed strength in the south, and in 1871 Riley gobbled Zeandale 
township from Wabaunsee. Milford was a thorn in the flesh of Manhattan, though friendly 
enough to Junction. They were a smart lot of Yankees up there who have never given us any 
trouble. McDowell was of no use to Junction City, except to come here to pay their taxes; the 
people did all their trading at Manhattan. One night during the session of 1873 Junction City 
and Manhattan got together and swapped territory. How Milford did roar! The dear people in 
either township knew nothing of it until it was all over. Geary county was born about the same 
way. But Manhattan was still in trouble, and in 1903 reached the harbor of safety by the skin 
of her teeth. I was present at a big fight between Manhattan and the north end of Riley before 
a committee of the legislature that year. Manhattan wanted a law authorizing a tax to build a 
courthouse. She won in the legislature, and set the day of the election about one week before 
the flood of 1903. A week later a sea of water would have drowned her hopes for a few years 
more. Now the town is fixed, about the most beautiful in the state, with the first or second 
greatest institution of its kind in America, saved to her by a Junction City man. 

" Now to return to the county lines of Davis (or Geary) . A remarkable fight was started in 1879. 
I guess by authority of the board of county commissioners, to gobble a six-mile strip from Dickin- 
son county. There never was such excitement before or since in Dickinson county. It seems as 
though the town of Abilene was all in Topeka. If it had not been for the Horton-Ingalls row. 
which involved everything at that session except the state printer, the bill making such a change 
would have passed the house, but with no probability of passing the senate. It was a wild and 
woolly row. A five-gallon keg was kept on tap all the time in the washstand in a rear room of 
the Teff t House, and everybody was privileged to call and help himself. That was my last run 
for state printer, and I had a dreadful time and some fun disowning that keg. Now, I haven't 
any papers for this, but it is a reasonable and a believable story. That frolic cost $600, and it 
wa? paid in some sort of voucher by the county commissioners for riprapping the Republican 
river bridge, probably a ten-dollar job. 

"There was a lively contest in the legislature of 1903 over a bill to detach six miles from 
Morris county and add it to Geary. This involved the Rock Island road, eighty-eight sections of 
land, $400,000 of taxable property and 1500 population. The bill did not pass either house, but it 
raised a great commotion. It was understood to be a White City movement against Council 
Grove, and Geary was not much interested. Junction City would have about as much use for 
additional territory on the south as Manhattan would have on the north end of Riley. 

"I think county lines in Kansas are now definitely settled. But to justify the transfer in 
this neighborhood I call attention to the fact that Shawnee worked some territory off Jackson 
and Jefferson; Douglas also worked Jefferson, and Wyandotte worked Johnson. In Potta- 
watomie the trouble took the opposite chute, and the county has a county seat in the hills away 
from the railroad, with t vo good towns on the railroad, St. Marys and Wamego." 



4 Kansas State Historical Society. 

established in 1865. and I became his partner. I would go on to St. Louis 
and buy the goods, and haul them with my teams from Leavenworth to all 
the posts. Crane had the oversight of the work at the posts, at each of 
which we had a clerk. ^ George W. Crane, now head of a Topeka printing 
office, was head clerk at Fort Larned. A brother of mine, Albert Weich- 
selbaum, was at Fort Dodge. He was killed there on Sunday, August 27, 
1865. It was our custom to close the store at one o'clock in the afternoon 
on Sundays. My brother and one of the soldiers, a cavalry sergeant, went 
out hunting. As they did not come back, news was sent to my brother 
Sam, who was clerking for me at Fort Larned. The commander there fur- 
nished him with a company of cavalry to escort him to Fort Dodge. They 
found my brother Albert's body on a sand bar in the Arkansas river, about 
a mile above Fort Dodge, but they never found the soldier's remains. I 
was never satisfied as to whether Albert was killed by the Indians or by 
the sergeant who went out with him. 

I bought out the interest at Fort Harker and Fort Wallace from Robert 
S. Miller, a former banker of Junction City, dead long ago. The firm name 
at Fort Wallace was Scott & Weichselbaum. D. W. Scott had been the 
quartermaster at Fort Riley for several years. 

The firm name at Fort Harker was Osborne & Scott. Vincent B. Os- 
borne had been a soldier during the war and had one leg cut off. Neither 
man had money, and I furnished the capital, and supposed I had a half in- 
terest in Scott's share, but I had no contract written. I did have a written 
agreement for Fort Wallace, written out by the judge of the court, who 
was my attorney at Junction City. 

The firm name at Camp Supply, Fort Larned and Fort Dodge was Tap- 

NoTE 3.— Jesse H. Crane was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. June 23. 1889. He was educated 
In La Fayette College, and came to Kansas with his father, Dr. F. L. Crane, in 1855. During that 
year he took a position as clerk with "Bob" Wilson, sutler at Fort Riley. In 1859 he was ap- 
pointed post sutler at Fort Larned, and engaged in partnership with Theo. Weichselbaum of 
Ogden. This partnership continued until 1866, when he sold out his Fort Larned interests and 
removed to Topeka, the home of his father and brothers. In 1873 he went to Santa Barbara, 
California, on account of catarrhal trouble, and returned with his family in 1876. He died in 
Topeka July 5, 1908. 

Francis Loomis Crane, the father of Jesse, was born January 10, 1808, at East Windsor, 
Hartford county, Connecticut. His father, David Crane, did good service under the immediate 
command of General Washington. His home training was in the strict Puritan school. He was 
educated in the common schools, and studied medicine with an uncle, Dr. John W. Crane. At 
the age of 22 he had established a successful business at Easton, Pennsylvania. In October, 1854, 
he moved to Kansas and settled on the present site of Topeka, and became a member of the town 
company. He was active in the formation of the Free-State party. In 1857 he was treasurer of 
the St. Joseph and Topeka Railroad Company, and he was also foremost in the labor and agita- 
tion resulting in the construction of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Five acres of 
the site on which the Santa Fe shops are located were donated by Doctor Crane. In 1859 he 
started the present Topeka Cemetery; he built a bridge across the Kansas river. August 19, 
1862, he enlisted as a private in Company E. Eleventh Kansas regiment, and served until mus- 
tered out, August 7, 1865. He was soon detailed as hospital steward, placed in charge of a small- 
pox hospital, and did the work of a brigade surgeon on a private's pay. He was married in 
October, 1838, to Mary Elizabeth Howell. She lived but six and one-half years. Doctor Crane 
died at 4 o'clock A. M. November 19, 1884, at the residence of his son Jesse, in New Mexico. Ho 
made a splendid record, and left a very pleasant memory. He was greatly interested in the State 
Historical Society, and has left in its files a scrap-book showing a remarkably enterprising and 
liberal business and public life. He left four sons, Jesse H., Franklin L.. who died at Fort Larned 
during the war, David O., and George W.. Crane. The youngest son is the noted publisher, of 
Topeka. He was born at Easton. Pennsylvania, August 25, 1843. He lived with an aunt in 
Canada until March, 1865, when he came to Kansas. He clerked in the store of his brother Jesse 
at Larned for one year. He returned to Topeka in 1866, and for three years cultivated a market 
garden on the ground where the yards and depot of the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Railway 
Company now are. In 1868 he began business as a bookbinder and blank-book maker in partner- 
ship with J. G. Bryon. In 1869 he acquired a one-third interest in the Topeka Commonwealth, 
under the firm name of Prouty, Davis & Crane. In 1888 he organized the Crane Publishing Com- 
pany, and ever since has enjoyed a large and lucrative trade. He was the nominee of the Repub- 
lican caucus for state printer in 1893, but being the session of the legislative war he lacked one 
vote of an election. In June, 1870, he married Ella Rain. Two children were born of this mar- 
riage, Frank S., cashier and superintendent of the publishing business, and Edna. Mrs. Crane 
died in April, 1881. In the winter of 1882 Mr. Crane married Miss Fannie Kiblinger. 



statement of Theodore Weichselbaum. 5 

pan & Weichselbaum. J. E. Tappan was first lieutenant of the Second 
Colorado, company G, during the war, a nephew of Samuel F. Tappan, Bos- 
ton people. John E. Tappan's father was a large manufacturer of rubber 
goods in Boston. When the young man went in with me he put in a capital 
of $5000, and he bought out Jesse Crane. Ours was the first sutler's store 
at Camp Supply. 

I think it was in 1868 that I opened the sutler's store at Camp Supply. 
Maj. Henry Inman was the chief quartermaster for the Western Depart- 
ment, stationed at Fort Harker. He supplied the transportation for all 
those Western posts when there was ixh expedition to go out. There were 
several such expeditions fitted out from there. When Custer was stationed 
at Fort Riley he and Mrs. Custer visited at my house. 

When Major Inman and I went down to Camp Supply, soon after it was 
opened, we bad an escort of ten Cheyenne Indians. They would always 
have fresh buffalo meat ready for us in camp. I traded with the Cheyennes, 
Arapahoes and Kiowas between the Arkansas river and Camp Supply. 

We did a lot of business at Fort Supply; a good business. Drum, 

I think, was in charge of the Camp Supply sutler's store, and had an inter- 
est with us. 

In July, 1864, Maj. Gen. S. R. Curtis was sent out to Fort Riley by the 
War Department to raise all the militia he could to go to the relief of trains 
which were corralled at Cow creek* on the Santa Fe road because of the 
hostile Indians. As soon as he reported at Fort Riley, Capt. James R. Mc- 
Clure, who was in command of that post, sent for me to report to him, and 
go as guide on that expedition. I reported the same day, but it took a few 
days to make ready. I had to furnish teams to haul the goods. I furnished 
seven or eight teams and drivers. Brother Albert was one of the militia, 
and rode one of my mules. We went to Fort Larned, and after we were 
there a day or two General Curtis got my horse to ride. He had none, 
having come out to Fort Riley in a four-mule ambulance which he had con- 
tinued to use to Fort Larned. Capt. John Willans, General Curtis's adju- 
tant on this expedition, was the only soldier he had with him. I knew 
Willans before the war. He had a theater upstairs in my store building. 

Note 4. — The following manuscripts were found among the Society's papers, and evidently 
pertain to this expedition: 

"Head Quarters 14th Reg. K. S. M., 
Ft. Riley, July 23. 1864. 
" Pursuant to instructions just received from Major General Curtis, you are ordered to re- 
port to this headquarters with the least possible delay, with all the men you can raise from your 
company, well mounted, arms will be furnished here. 

"Order your men to take one or two blankets each, as they probably will be absent for eight 
or ten days. Very respectfully. Your obedient servant. 

"2d Lieut. C. M. Dyche, commanding F Co., D. W. Scott, 

14th Regt. K. S. M." Col. 14th Regt. K. S. M. 

" Report of 2d Lieut. C. M. Dyche, Go. F, 14th Regt., Kansas Militia. 

1. C. M. Dyche, 2d Lieut. 14. Joe Osbern. 

2. Robert Mellan, 4th Sergt. 15. William Powel. 

3. E. C. Estman, 2d Corporal. ' 16. J. Streetfield. 

4. J. Myres, 4th * ' 17. R. T. Thomas. 

5. A. B. Brookfield, 3d Lieut. 18. D. Warner. 

6. J. Busby. , 19. A. Weichselbaum. 

7. C. Caley. 20. Th. Weichselbaum. 

8. S. Cutter. 21. J. J. Myres. 

9. James Hestan. 22. Alb. Phasan. 

10. J. Mellan. 23. C. Zubell. 

11. Robert Mellan. 24. J. T. Banister. 

12. John Osbern. 25. Philip Bloomer. 

13. Th. Osbern. 26. S. Glossip. 

" I certify that the above is a correct list of the men serving on the Indian expedition. 
"Aug. 6. 1864. C. M. Dyche, 2d Lieut., Co. F., 14th Regt. K. S. M." 



6 Kansas State Historical Society. 

A pretty good fellow. We crossed the Arkansas river south of Lamed. 
After we crossed Pawnee fork we went east without seeing any Indians; 
but they saw us. We recrossed the river near the mouth of Walnut creek, 
near Fort Zarah. (I ran a store there in 1864 or 1865, and made hay there 
for the government.) Curtis found nothing. It was the state militia 
from Riley, Davis and Pottawatomie counties I accompanied. We picked 
them up going out. The state made an appropriation that partially paid us, 
but we were never paid in full. 

I brought the news of the breaking out of the war from Fort Riley to 
Fort Wise, in April, 1861, with an ox team, ahead of the mail. I took a 
soldier's wife out there to her husband. Her husband was a bugler in the 
company. She begged me to take her out. I asked her $20 for the trip, 500 
miles out and the same back, but I took some Indian goods out and sold them, 
so made something. In those days there was only one mail from Independ- 
ence, Mo., to Fort Union, N. M. The same animals they started with had 
to go through the whole trip to Fort Wise (Bent's old fort). This was 
when the fort proper was still used— the fort by the river. It was moved 
afterwards. They used Bent's old fort on the hill for their commissary 
stores and offices; but the post, made up of little shanties and tents, was 
down on the river. 

June 10, 1862, I married, my wife coming directly to me from Germany. 
I had never known her nor seen her. My parents picked her out for me and 
sent her out. They made a good selection— the best woman that ever lived. 
She had eight children, of whom four are living. Fanny Blumenstein was 
her name. They had sent me her photo and we had had some correspondence. 
My brother-in-law, John Jacob Tipp, brought her with him from Germany 
to Leavenworth with a sister of mine, Tipp's wife. They lived at Ogden in 
the same house with us. Our children were: Josephine Weichselbaum, born 
May, 1864. Samuel, my oldest boy, was born in 1866. He was married in Au- 
gust, 1908, in Chicago. Edwin was born in 1868 in Furth, Bavaria. My wife 
and children were there on a visit. I had taken them over in 1867, stayed two 
months, got tired of bumming and came back to my work, but went back 
for them in the fall and brought them home, crossing the ocean four times 
that year. Johanna, living at Macon, Ga., is our youngest child, she mar- 
ried my second cousin, Julius J. Waxelbaum, a wholesale fruit man or com 
mission merchant at Macon. They have three children. He changed the 
spelling of our name. My oldest daughter, Josephine, is not married and 
lives at home, is my storekeeper. My wife died in 1896. June 14, 1900, I 
married Miss Bertha Koch, of New York city. 

When I took that woman out to Fort Wise in 1861 I was attacked by five 
young Indians after I crossed Big Coon creek on the Santa Fe trail. The 
five had but one pony. When they saw my horse there they wanted to 
trade. The woman was in the wagon. I refused to trade, when one took 
his spear and punched me in the face. I then took out my pistol and 
pounded the one that punched me on the head, and left him there on the 
prairie. Returning from Fort Wise, I brought three discharged soldiers 
from three miles this side of Cow creek. One was a cook and made up a 
loaf of bread, and had it out to cool while some more was cooking. A great 
big Indian came up (there were others behind him) and climbed into my 
wagon and helped himself to my bread, but I took out my blacksnake whip 



4 



statement of Theodore Weichselbaum. 7 

and whipped them right and left, and chased them off. I think they were 
Kaws. When I came back to the wagon the three soldiers were just as 
white as could be. One of them, Joseph Rendlebrock, then a sergeant, be- 
came a captain of cavalry in the regular army during the war. I have read 
two articles in the Kansas City Star recently about this man's service in 
New Mexico. He seems never to have conquered his fear, although he 
served in the army long enough to draw a pension on retiring. 

In 1864 the Cheyenne Indians asked my partner (Crane) and myself to 
trade with them in their camp, twenty miles southwest of Fort Lamed, in 
November and December. They escorted us out to the camp on the Ar- 
kansas river. We forded the Arkansas with our four-mule team. I was in 
my own conveyance, a carriage and mules, and expected to stay a week. 
Then the river froze over so we could not get back for four weeks. The 
Indians treated us well. Their camp was south of the Arkansas— a great 
big camp. We got a lot of buffalo robes there. We traded our goods to 
them for buffalo robes and antelope skins. The Indians had lodges from 
which the Sibley tent was patterned. They furnished us a lodge to live in, 
and gave us soup in six- and eight-quart milk pans. Another dish was little 
dogs roasted. They were raised for that purpose, and were just as nice and 
fat as could be. They also roasted buffalo. They also cut the meat in little 
pieces and mixed it with red berries, and made a sausage which was very 
fine eating. We did our business with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes and 
Kiowas. 

John K. Wright built the foundation of my store at Fort Larned in 1862. 
It was a big stone store building, and though he afterwards followed the 
business, this was the first contract of that kind he ever had. He was a 
sergeant in the Second Colorado, stationed at Fort Larned at the time. I 
had a back room where I slept. Sometimes six or eight big Indians slept 
on the floor at the same time. We had a Cheyenne to do the chores about 
the place. When they went on the warpath they had to give us notice and 
he left. They would not allow him to stay there. 

About 1861, or perhaps later, the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos went out 
in the fall of the year for buffalo meat, to about where Abilene now is. As 
the party came back a young fellow had two long strings of fingers and toes 
of a Pawnee strung from his saddle horn to the back of his saddle, outside 
of his legs. There seemed to be more than would belong to one person. 
He had done the killing. I remember there was a big fight between the 
Pawnees and Pottawatomies, but have forgotten the particulars.* 

Note 5.— These relics may have been taken from one of the victims of the fight on Bull Foot 
creek. Lincoln county, about 1863, mentioned by Adolph Roenigk in the following extract from 
his letter : 

"In 1884 I became acquainted with Mr. Ferdinand Erhardt. an old settler two miles south of 
here on Bull Foot creek. Talking with him about old times and Indians, he told me about this 
place where he found skulls and some remains of dead Indians when he first settled, in 1867. 
A few years later a party of Pottawatomie Indians camped there for about a week, about a 
half mile west of his farm. Several white men were with the party, and from them he learned 
about the battle. It was said to have been a running fight. The retreating party of fourteen 
tried to find shelter or a hiding place in among rocks, a kind of a cave near Bull Foot creek, and 
all were killed. Some writer may have written about this before, as it was known to the military 
officers at Fort Marker. Mr. Erhardt said in 1869 an ambulance came over from the fort, distance 
twenty miles, and gathered up the bones and what was left of the dead Indians. I wanted to see 
the place, and we went over. On a rock near by we found an inscription cut. The exact words 
I do not remember, but think it reads: 'Battle between Pottawatomies and Pawnees, fourteen 
Indians killed, 1863.' A number of bullet marks were also plain to be seen where the rain could 
not wash over it. This was twenty years ago."— Letter, July 18, 1904. 

A Mr. Solomon Humbarger, of Culver, told Mr. Roenigk that at the time the battle happened 
a large party of Pottawatomies came past their place, having with them one dead and one wounded. 



8 Kansas State Historical Societjj. 

About the winter of 1863-'64, after Col. Jesse H. Leavenworth had been 
appointed Indian agent, he came in at the same time I did, by coach, from 
Fort Lamed. When we came to about where Brookville now is, to a Uttle 
log shack, we were snow-bound and had to stay there all night. I had 
bought from the Indians two good blankets and was prepared for the night, 
Leavenworth asked me where I got the blankets. I told him to mind his 
own business, that I had bought and paid for them. The man who helped 
Leavenworth in his dirty work was a large man— an American, and was 
along on this trip. He afterwards went to the Territory. He kept the 

Cow Creek ranch on the Santa Fe trail for Doctor . Doctor 

came out from Council Grove, where he had swapped or traded with the 
Indians, and when he left the Cow Creek store he went back there again 
to live. The Indians were to have received the blankets as presents, but 
Leavenworth traded them to the Indians for buffalo robes. Colonel Leav- 
enworth made his headquarters at Fort Larned. His pay was small and he 
had to make his living from it. My brother found two of my mules when he 
came in from the west. Custer gave him an order on the quartermaster at 
Fort Harker for two mules. Inman was the quartermaster. 

Capt. Nathaniel Lyon was in command of Fort Riley in the fall of 1860, 
and hired me and my outfit to go to Camp Alert, afterwards Larned, to make 
hay for the government, and allowed me sixty-five dollars per day from the 
time I left Fort Riley until I returned. I had about ten wagons and about 
ten extra hands. The men did the mowing with scythes, a half dozen great 
big Dutchmen, all in a row. I cleared twenty dollars a day for my own serv- 
ices. I was gone thirty days. We hauled the grass ten miles, across Coon 
creek and the Arkansas river. There was not a drop of water in the Ar- 
kansas. I had to sink a big wagon box in the Arkansas to collect water for 
our own use. We drove the cattle across the river to Coon creek to get 
their water. When the water of Coon creek reached the Arkansas, it sunk 
too. The grass grew plentifully that year, about one and one-half feet high. 
The Indians did not bother us any there. This was in early November, and 
we cut the grass in good shape. 

Lyon, to punish his soldiers, would make them carry two or three sticks 
of cordwood on their shoulders. There would always be some of these men 
marching up and down there. He was a little fellow. He was a terrible 
growler. He was smart. He was a hard nut. He was an honorable man, 
and a good friend to me. It was Lyon who gave me the job of making hay 
at Fort Larned. They could not get anyone else to take the contract, and 
so I got it, and big wages. 

I built a brewery and ran it for ten years at Ogden, and closed up the 
business when the prohibition law came into effect, May 1, 1881. I hauled 
the beer around the country and sold it to the saloons, and shipped it as far 
west as Hays. I never got a cent in compensation for my loss, and I am 
out $15,000. I had built a large brewery, with cellars underground, and 

and told of the fight and the number of Pawnees killed, all of which agreed pretty well with Mr. 
Erhardt's story. Mr. Roenigrk concludes, in a letter of October 24, 1906: 

" I would also call your attention to Mr. James R. Mead's description of those Pawnee horse- 
stealing parties, pages 13 and 14, vol. 9, of Historical Collections, which I think throws light on 
how those Pawnees got there. The number is within the number described; the year is within 
a few years of the time of which Mr. Mead writes ; the route taken through Jewell, Mitchell and 
Lincoln counties is in direct line with this battle ground, and they were on foot. If you have my 
letter on file you will see where I state that those Pawnees were said to have come from the north, 
and when the remains of those Indians were found in the rocks by Mr. Erhardt, after 1867, no car- 
cases or bones of ponies were found." 



statement of Theodore Weichselbaum. 9 

employed four or five men, who were originally brewers in Germany, and 
had come directly from the old country, and knew all about the making of 
malt. We made beer from barley and hops. The grain was raised in our 
neighborhood. I bought lots of barley right in the county and made malt of it. 
The hops I bought of St. Louis dealers ; I think they were obtained largely 
from northern New York state. My income from the sale of beer may have 
been about $1000 a month. Out of this I paid my men and bought my ma- 
terials. I did the hauling and selling of it myself principally. When Mr. 
Walruff, of Lawrence, began litigation in the courts regarding the loss of 
his brewery he asked me to join him in the suit, but I told him I had lost 
enough already, and would stop where I was. The building stands there 
yet. The cellars I use in part for stables and the upper rooms for grain. 

I only knew the road as the Mormon road. Before and after I came to 
Ogden the Mormons traveled on that road, turning onto it from the Santa 
Fe trail. They crossed the Kansas at Whisky Point, where the Junction 
City Country Club is located, and climbed the hill on the east side of where 
the hospital now stands at Fort Riley, and thence across the country to 
Fort Kearney, Neb., and from there to Salt Lake City. I don't remember 
of any other emigration than the Mormons using that road. I have seen 
hundreds of them come that way in all kinds of conveyances. Some of 
them took out strings of fine horses. They would have a team hitched to a 
wagon, pulling it, and a man driving. Then a rope would be tied to the 
end of the tongue, and to either side of this rope would be tied ten more 
horses, two abreast, and a man ahead of them on horseback with the lead 
end of the rope fastened to a doubletree with a team of horses, making it 
appear as though a wagon was hauled by six teams. Their road lay up the 
east side of the Republican to Fort Kearney. 

In going from Fort Riley to Larned we crossed the Kansas at Whisky 
Point, then followed up Clark's creek to Skiddy, and from there crossed to 
the Santa Fe trail, two and a half miles east of Lost Springs, thence on 
the Santa Fe trail to Fort Larned. 

During the war and up to 1869, whenever the Indians became hostile 
we made our trips after dark. The Indians never fought after dark. They 
were afraid to tackle anything they could not see. I have driven many a 
night between Larned and Dodge, fifty- six miles, by myself. There was 
only one watering place between those two points, about twenty-six or 
thirty miles west of Larned. We kept to the divide, and it was good 
traveling. The river road between the two points was sixty-six miles. 

Yes, I remember Mr. Dodds, but not his initials. His family kept a 
boarding house adjoining our store at Fort Larned. I think Jesse Crane 
married one of his daughters, and that one of the boys clerked for us. 

It was not necessary for our clerks to know much of the Indian language 
to sell goods and look after things at our stores. They picked up some 
words quickly and used signs mostly, and got on very satisfactorily in that 
way. Our man Bradley (I don't remember his first name) was our inter- 
preter for several years, living with us at Fort Larned. He had a Cheyenne 
squaw living with him. They had no children. He had been with the In- 
dians for years before and could talk with all the plains tribes. He was 
paid monthly wages the year round. 

During the time I was in the sutler stores I hauled thousands of buffalo 
robes to Leavenworth with my teams. I sold them there mostly to W. C. 



10 Kansas State Historical Society. 

Lowenstein, for from five to six dollars apiece, cash. He made so much 
money from his trade there that he went to Milan, Italy, and was still there 
when I last heard of him, enjoying the fruits of his Kansas trade. I bought 
buckskins from the Indians, dressed antelope skins, and have some still at 
home. I have seen these animals in herds of from thirty to fifty on the 
plains. 

I bought my goods at St. Louis, New York and Chicago, going back for 
them myself. All my freighting was done from Leavenworth. My goods 
were brought up there on boats from St. Louis, and I hauled them out in 
my own teams to Ogden and the western posts. Once, I think it was in the 
spring of 1859, I bought several barrels of whisky and salt, heavy goods, 
from a steamboat that came up to Ogden and landed the goods on the bank 
for me. The river was high. I think this was the only time a steamboat 
reached Ogden. 

The Cow Creek ranch, on the Santa Fe trail consisted of three or four 
little lumber shanties built in a row on the east side of Cow creek. There 
were other trading ranches at the crossing of the Little Arkansas and the 
Walnut on the trail, mostly built of lumber which had to be hauled out. 
Timber was scarce. There were scattering trees on Cow creek and the Ar- 
kansas, and in some ravines north and south of the Arkansas. 

Peacock had the ranch at the crossing of Walnut creek, on the east 
side. It was of adobe, a one-story house, long and square. He went up on 
top of the store to see if there was any danger from Indians, and was shot 
and killed by Satanta. Charley Rath kept store after him; probably pur- 
chased the right of his executors. Rath was a teamster at Fort Riley in 
1858, and I remember his coming down to my store at Ogden on a little black 
pony, which I bought later and drove with another in my buckboard for 
several years. Rath hauled wood for me at Fort Dodge. He drove about 
ten little Mexican mules to each wagon. He was a very nice fellow; went 
later to New Mexico and freighted down about Las Vegas, out from the 
railroad to the government posts, and for other parties. 

When I was at Fort Larned I remember having seen a Pawnee on foot 
with a rawhide lariat or bridle in his hand, walking along six or ten feet 
below the top of the bank of Walnut creek, looking for horses, and trying 
to conceal himself as he passed by. 

Some white men built a log cabin on top of Pawnee Rock about . 1866, I 
suppose for the purpose of keeping a lookout up and down the valley. I 
remember of seeing some friendly Indians come out of the cabin and look 
at me as I was passing along the road that ran at the foot of the rock. 
They lived there some time. It was burned down about 1868, for, not see- 
ing it, I went up on foot, and found in the ashes a silver ten-cent piece, 
which I kept for a pocket piece for years. 

I was acquainted with E. W. Wynkoop for several years. He was an 
honorable man. I believe he was appointed Indian agent in 1866, for the 
Cheyennes. At one time he invited me to go into business with him at Den- 
ver, but I declined to do so. 

Gov. James M. Harvey drove into my neighborhood in 1860, and settled 
at Vinton, north of the military reserve. He had made the trip from Illi- 
nois with an ox team. In one of my contracts out at Fort Larned I hired 
Harvey and his ox team. He was with me thirty days on the trip. I saved 



\ 



statement of Theodore Weichselhaum. 11 

his life near Lamed. A large white wolf, frothing at the mouth, had at- 
tacked him when I happened to be near. I drew my revolver and killed the 
wolf. When the war broke out a military company was formed at Ogden, 
called the Ogden "Mudsills." They elected Harvey captain. They en- 
listed as volunteers, and the Mudsills became a part of company G, Tenth 
Kansas regiment. This started Harvey. 



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